Last month, I bought my first Hobonichi planner, and began attempting yet again to embrace the planner lifestyle. It’s always ended in failures, but I never learn.
Anyways, I purchased the version of Hobonichi planner with expanded notes section, which added a lot of free pages to the back of the planner to write things down. Having gone down a YouTube rabbit hole in planner-fu, I cam across the concept of a “Commonplace Book,” which is an ancient (?) practice of copying down notes and snippets of knowledge that you come across to create your very own second brain of sorts filled with information you are interested in. If you’re interested, there is a quick Wikipedia article to wet your appetite: Commonplace book.
Having been reading a lot of books at very rapid speeds, I tend to lose interesting information I come across, and have no way to find it later because I listen to audiobooks. So these days, when I come across a topic or concept that is new and interesting to me, I pause for a second to google it or note it somewhere to look up later, and if relevant to me, copy it down in my Hobonichi planner.
Here is a pile of scraps for my scrapbook from the past month.
“We must be willing to get rid of the life we planned so as to accept the life that is waiting for us.” - Joseph Campbell
Spotify Partner Program
12 episodes
10000 hours listened over last 30 days
2000 streamers in the last 30 days
YouTube Monetization
500 subscribers
3 video uploads in 90 days and one of:
3000 watch hours in the last 365 days
3 million views on shorts in the last 90 days
(I was considering doing video content again and realized YouTube is way easier to monetize than Spotify.)
Estimated Taxes:
4/15/2025
6/16/2025
9/15/2025
1/15/2026
Tamiflu: Oseltamivir phosphate capsules USP 75mg (2 times a day for 5 days)
Bronchitis:
Azithromycin
Benzonatate
Methylprednisolone
Albuterol HFA Inhaler
(I had a bout of the flu and another bout of bronchitis.)
Atomic Habits
Identity-based habits:
Decide the type of person you want to be
Prove it to self with small wins
Identity emerges out of habits
Four laws of behavior change: habit loop
To create good habits:
Cue: make it obvious
Craving: make it attractive
Response: make it easy
Reward: make it satisfying
To break bad habits:
Cue: make it invisible
Craving: make it unattractive
Response: make it difficult
Reward: make it unsatisfying
WOOP (Gabriele Oettingen):
Wish: identify a goal
Outcome: visualize what achieving the goal would meanl/feel
Obstacle: identify potential obstacles
Plan: strategy to overcome obstacles
Notes:
Contrast wish with reality
Optimistic thinking and realistic assessment of obstacles
NICE Goals
Near-term
Input-based
Controllable
Energizing
Notes:
Emphasize day-to-day things you can control
Enjoy the journey
Prioritize goals
Break long-term goals into smaller pieces
Write them down
Commit to them
Focus on performance
Make environment work for you
Types of Extrinsic Motivation
External regulation
Introjected regulation
Identified regulation
Integrated regulation
I’ve been writing things down into a physical notebook, but maybe if I can keep up this practice for long enough, I’ll digitalize it to take advantage of the tagging and searching functionalities of modern technology.
Until then, I’ll see where this Commonplace Book-making journey will take me! I hope that by the end of the year, I might have a good chunk of resources available for easy reference to begin my next big project.
They say that when you spend a period of time collecting resources and information, you’ll end up seeing what you’re interested in at the moment because of the amount attention you’re paying to one or more fields. My current interest is executive function and “over-ruling” your “lazy brain,” so it makes sense that most of my notes (and informative reading) have been about that!
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